Seat assemblies in vehicles are typically adjustably attached to the vehicle. Seats are adjustable to a variety of positions and configurations. Seat adjustment systems include latch mechanisms which prevent seat adjustment at undesired times. In order to adjust a seat a vehicle occupant must first release the latch mechanism, and maintain the latch mechanism in the released position during adjustment of the seat. For example, a seat back may be adjusted relative to a seat bottom to fold forward for passenger access to areas located rearward of the seat in the vehicle. A latch mechanism must be released and maintained in that configuration while the seat is being adjusted from one position to another.
Typically, both the latch mechanism release and the adjustment of the seat are actuated by user effort, specifically, the moment arm of the latch release lever. Therefore, the latch mechanism may have a larger handle with a lower latch release effort to reduce the effort required by the user, or may have a smaller handle to utilize packaging space within the vehicle. However, this will increase the latch release effort required by the user. Therefore, the user needs to perform two separate motions, one to release the corresponding latch mechanism and the other to re-position or re-configure the seat. Often, these two motions require efforts to be applied in different directions, which make the task of re-positioning or re-configuring the seat challenging especially for a user with restricted mobility or limb strength.